Club Class Dining

I was on the Coral Princess last week and had Club Class Dining. I was very disappointed in it. The only difference from MDR was the color of the table cloth and the napkins had CC on them. The service was poor. There was not anything actually different than what is on the menu. A couple of nights the headwaiter made a menu item, several other nights a Caesar salad , others nothing special. I had Club Class earlier on the Grand Princess and it was nice. The service was excellent and the headwaiter made something very special every night. After this experience I won't book Club Class again.

I hope you put it on your review or write an email especially since like few others you have a basis of comparison between Club Class ship experiences

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Sounds like not worth the extra cost for the level of dining service provided. Hope they are made aware of it.

Hmm? People on this board seem to just talk about the dining perk with Club Class. We are also interested in the fact that those CC minis are also midship and you get early embark/debark. DH is a bit ADHD and getting on and off without waiting in lines is something he really needs.

I have it booked for our Panama Canal cruise so wondering about other opinions??

We book Club Class Mini Suites because of the mid-ship location which is important to us. Nice to never be farther than half way to anyplace and back to our cabin. :)

Sorry your experience was so much different from ours - and from the majority of comments on other threads about CC here on the Princess Board. A majority of the comments from people who have actually used it are very complimentary. See the other recent thread: https://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2562267

We experienced CC on Ruby Princess earlier this year and have it booked again on Crown Princess next May. For us it was the best of both worlds, dining whenever you want without the wait and the same table and servers for breakfast, lunch and dinner. The service was excellent. We won’t be sailing Princess again without it.

Thanks Kartvy and WarEagle for your postive reports on CC Dining. :)

Club Class is Princess lines answer to Aqua Class on Celebrity, except with Princess you have to book a mini-suite for this upgrade. I am surprised at the number of people who have complained about this upgrade, usually from people who elect not to take it.

In the "old days" the cruise lines were simply one class, but to keep princes down that did have to downgrade services, especially the quality of the food and the service in the MDR. Club class, like Aqua Class is a way for individuals who don't mind spending the extra money, have a return to the service that the cruise lines used to have.

Whenever we sail on Celebrity we book Aqua Class, and one of the reasons we have picked Princess this time, was to try the new club class as well as Medallion Service.

We had club class dining on the Royal in September with our free suite upgrade. We had a great waiter and never had to wait to be seated. And while we enjoyed the experience, my DW and I agreed that it is not something we would ever pay extra for. One extra selection at dinner, sometimes just a different sauce, and different colored tablecloths are just not worth it. But, if it comes with a cabin you want for its location then I say to each his own.

We had club class dining on the Royal in September with our free suite upgrade. We had a great waiter and never had to wait to be seated. And while we enjoyed the experience, my DW and I agreed that it is not something we would ever pay extra for. One extra selection at dinner, sometimes just a different sauce, and different colored tablecloths are just not worth it. But, if it comes with a cabin you want for its location then I say to each his own.

NEVER HAD TO WAIT TO BE SEATED. Same (great) waiters, anytime you want to dine. On my two cruises upcoming, my March cruise is $10pp per day more for CC and my October cruise is $14pp more per day. Not even including embarkation etc. I believe that this is a very small amount to pay extra for what you said you enjoyed!!!! So let me nicely disagree with you and say, Yes, if our experience is like yours, then it is well worth it. I am old enough to remember traditional dining and how it was in the 80's and 90's and from what I read here at Cruisecritic, CC is helping restore that experience just a little. So when you divide it down to a daily figure, $10 to me has never been better spent!

Pooh

NEVER HAD TO WAIT TO BE SEATED. Same (great) waiters, anytime you want to dine. On my two cruises upcoming, my March cruise is $10pp per day more for CC and my October cruise is $14pp more per day. Not even including embarkation etc. I believe that this is a very small amount to pay extra for what you said you enjoyed!!!! So let me nicely disagree with you and say, Yes, if our experience is like yours, then it is well worth it. I am old enough to remember traditional dining and how it was in the 80's and 90's and from what I read here at Cruisecritic, CC is helping restore that experience just a little. So when you divide it down to a daily figure, $10 to me has never been better spent!

Pooh

Agree with you ... having CC restore dining back somewhat to what we had in 80's & 90's is wonderful! :)

But in saying all that, it IS a shame that no matter how much little extra you have to pay, I wish the dining experience could go back to the "good ole days" and not have to pay for it!! But I guess that is today's world.

Pooh

NEVER HAD TO WAIT TO BE SEATED. Same (great) waiters, anytime you want to dine. On my two cruises upcoming, my March cruise is $10pp per day more for CC and my October cruise is $14pp more per day. Not even including embarkation etc. I believe that this is a very small amount to pay extra for what you said you enjoyed!!!! So let me nicely disagree with you and say, Yes, if our experience is like yours, then it is well worth it. I am old enough to remember traditional dining and how it was in the 80's and 90's and from what I read here at Cruisecritic, CC is helping restore that experience just a little. So when you divide it down to a daily figure, $10 to me has never been better spent!

I agree with you. I thought the excellent service and no wait were the best parts of Club Class. The "special" food wasn't any big deal and several times it was nothing more than a different sauce for a steak. Some passengers said that the custom made crepes at breakfast were good. Personally, I would pay no more than $15pp/day for it. We had a full suite so it was a really nice perk for free. Glad I got to try it.

The location of our mid ship Mini Suite has always been more expensive than other mini suites so now that it's CC it's at not extra cost to us.

We would have had to pay the same anyway just like in full suites would have before CC Dining.

We booked a club class mini suite primarily for the extra cabin size and the larger balcony. We find that on a 2 -week cruise we need to have a break from the activity in the public areas of the ship.

I agree with you. I thought the excellent service and no wait were the best parts of Club Class. The "special" food wasn't any big deal and several times it was nothing more than a different sauce for a steak. Some passengers said that the custom made crepes at breakfast were good. Personally, I would pay no more than $15pp/day for it. We had a full suite so it was a really nice perk for free. Glad I got to try it.

We have full suits booked for our next two cruises. I am very much looking forward to trying it out.....:):):)

Bob

Hmm? People on this board seem to just talk about the dining perk with Club Class. We are also interested in the fact that those CC minis are also midship and you get early embark/debark. DH is a bit ADHD and getting on and off without waiting in lines is something he really needs.

I have it booked for our Panama Canal cruise so wondering about other opinions??

I can disembark early without having CC. In fact, we pretty much disembark when we choose. We are among the first small numbers to board pretty much always.

That aside, I would love to walk into the DR anytime I like and be seated and have pretty much same wait staff - at least the team. Unfortunately, not prepared to book Mini or up to get it, so that's life and fine. One gets what one is willing to pay for.

I had a great experience on the Caribbean Princess in May with CC. We were able to walk right in and had the same wait staff. We normally were seated at the same table or close to it a couple of times. I really enjoyed some of the special dishes. Many were pasta dishes, but you could get an appetizer portion which was great. I'm looking forward to it again this May.

Everyone spends their money they way they wish... for us, CC not worth it, we are elite, board early anyway, bring own wine on, always book a mini anyway, prefer to pay for Sabatini's or Crown Grill on formal nights, do buffet late after noon for late lunch and skip dinner and room service for breakfast... so CC not something we want or need.

I had a great experience on the Caribbean Princess in May with CC. We were able to walk right in and had the same wait staff. We normally were seated at the same table or close to it a couple of times. I really enjoyed some of the special dishes. Many were pasta dishes, but you could get an appetizer portion which was great. I'm looking forward to it again this May.

My question is, "how much is an occasional pasta dish worth....per day." Because in CC this would be the only real benefit to us. On our recent Regal sailing (in a balcony cabin) we ate Open sitting in the same deck 6 MDR as the CC folks....and never waited more than a minute to be seated (similar to those in CC). Princess always has great fettucini Alfredo so having that cooked in CC would not be an extra. We would certainly enjoy a few other extra pasta dishes...and that might be worth $5 a passenger day. So, I guess if we book a mini suite in the future (have one booked for a future Golden cruise) we would be willing to pay another $5 a day to move up to CC. Otherwise, we do not see the value. I should add that we are long time Elite...so the priority stuff (for CC) is meaningless.

This would all change if CC has their own chef/cooks...and unique (and better) menu. But for now, it is just the MDR with a little extra. And we think price wise that is only worth a little extra money,

Hank

I was on the Coral Princess last week and had Club Class Dining. I was very disappointed in it. The only difference from MDR was the color of the table cloth and the napkins had CC on them. The service was poor. There was not anything actually different than what is on the menu. A couple of nights the headwaiter made a menu item, several other nights a Caesar salad , others nothing special. I had Club Class earlier on the Grand Princess and it was nice. The service was excellent and the headwaiter made something very special every night. After this experience I won't book Club Class again.

How disappointing, we will be on the Coral Princess in December and booked in Club Class. We did Club Class on Pacific Princess and really had a wonderful experience, that is the reason for us booking it again this upcoming cruise.

We were told every breakfast, lunch and dinner about the extra addition to the MDR menu, sometimes an appetizer, entree, salad or dessert. 70% of the time it was cooked by the Maitre'd in view of the diners. The Maitre'd also visited everyones table every evening, the waiters were excellent and worked as a team. Since we know what Club Class dining should be like, I will definitely speak up if it doesn't match our previous experience.

Thanks for the heads up on your experience so we can be prepared. Will report our experience on Coral.

Hank,

Thanks for your input about your AD experience. One important piece of information is missing. What time did you go to dinner where you only waited a minute or so? I have read here and experienced first hand, that if you go to dinner at 5:30-6:15PM waiting is almost guaranteed. Go around 7 or so not so much. So that is why I am curious as to the time you went to dinner. I agree with what you said, but in the two times I have had AD (my past two cruises) my experience has been absolutely horrendous. So bad, that we spent most of our dinners in speciality dining. So for me an extra $10-12 pp per day is sooooo worth CC.

Pooh

Hank,

 

Thanks for your input about your AD experience. One important piece of information is missing. What time did you go to dinner where you only waited a minute or so? I have read here and experienced first hand, that if you go to dinner at 5:30-6:15PM waiting is almost guaranteed. Go around 7 or so not so much. So that is why I am curious as to the time you went to dinner. I agree with what you said, but in the two times I have had AD (my past two cruises) my experience has been absolutely horrendous. So bad, that we spent most of our dinners in speciality dining. So for me an extra $10-12 pp per day is sooooo worth CC.

 

Pooh

We normally went to dinner around 7:45 plus or minus a few minutes. Keep in mind that we were going to the Deck 6 MDR....which is only open for Select (Open) Dining at 7:30 (it is used for an early Fixed sitting). The Ladies Room (on the Regal) on Deck 6 is located adjacent to the entrance for CC...so while I waited for DW to "power her nose" before dinner I would watch the CC Maitre'd. Those folks had very little wait (never saw anyone in CC wait more then 1 or 2 minutes). But then when DW and I walked in the opposite side of that same MDR (the entrance for everyone not in CC) we were always greeted by the Maitre'd and immediately seated. And I will admit that all of our waiters were excellent, attentive, and near perfect in every way. In 10 days we did not have a single complaint regarding our service (or waiter advice) other then the lack of enough butter (the subject of another thread) which was quickly replaced upon request. If you are gong to dine earlier than 7:30 (in the open seating Select Dining) you would have to go down to Deck 5...where there might have been a line (we have no clue since we never went to that dining room.

Would we pay $10-$12 per day for CC? Not so sure..for several reasons. Reports here are that the food is basically the same you get in the MDR. and....DW and I love to share large tables to meet and socialize with new friends. For us, dinner is a social event (we dine at a 2 top most nights at home and look forward to the change on cruises) and a long slow friendly dining experience makes our day. In CC, if one enters at 7:30...it is likely they will not be able to share a large table...because there will be nobody to share with. The MDR offers more options for sharing. On our cruise, the late diners (7:30+) who came to Deck 6 were a limited group of perhaps 30 (we are guessing at this total). Over the period of 10 nights, we dined with many of the same folks (all fun) and had a fantastic time...every night. It almost became a joke when we were taken to a table of 8...where we had dined with the other 6 a few times ("you again!"). One night we did go into the MDR a little after 8, and had to dine at a 2 top because there were no other diners entering the MDR. We had a good dinner, great waiters..but did miss the socialization. I sometimes think that DW and I are aging throwbacks. While others are quietly eating (without conversation) or looking at their phones (in our family we have a rule of no phones at dinner).....we are chatting with other folks and having a good time. Sure, sometimes (rarely) we will end up at a bad table. But if we have one lousy table out of 10 (I think are average is a lot better) it would not change our mind about preferring to socialize with others at dinner (and lunch).

Hank

Interesting comments about CC. We have a CC cabin on our next cruise on the Emerald. I found an excellent price that was a whole lot cheaper than our mini so I jumped on it. So we will see how great it is and if we want to do it again without paying the premium to try it out.